


In the Face of Truth

by Emono



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mates, Mild Gore, Possessive Behavior, Smutty end, True Love Trumps Cannibalism, Wendigo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 02:42:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10755069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emono/pseuds/Emono
Summary: Snafu is not what he appears to be, and Sledge finds out.---“Don’t hate me,” Snafu was muttering into his uniform, looking so damn small and frail hunched up against Eugene. “Not you, Gene, not you, can’t bear it…”





	In the Face of Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone familiar with Josh Washington from Until Dawn? Think that secret ending <3

_"I will eat your sighs and harvest them in my belly until winter,_  
 _until they ripen into the shape of my name._  
 _I will press my hands into the wet cement of your ribcage_  
 _until you can see fingerprints._  
 _I will learn your anger. I will lick your sadness._  
 _I will feast on your hunger._  
 _I promise a banquet for our ending."_  
  
\- **What I'll Tell Them** , Caitlyn Siehl

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Snafu always seemed to have meat on him. Not just the dried up jerky they got in their rare rations but real, red meat that he cooked up however he could, be it small fires or covered up on coals. He never shared it and refused to say where he got it from. Most of the company just passed it off as hunting when they weren’t paying attention or scavenging larders. Those who looked down on the Cajun snickered about how he was probably eating roadkill; that he was scooping up poor rabbits or squirrels that got trapped under tank belts.

 

Despite his nickname, Shelton was just lucky like that. And like all the lucky guys he never shared his good fortune.

 

Except to Eugene. He offered his humble bounty quite a few times, holding out a smoking skewer with one of those unreadable looks. Those bottomless green eyes held something within them that drew Eugene in and yet struck fear into his very core. It wasn’t something someone would notice right away. Snafu had a problem with eye contact and his stare was usually fixed out into the distance or deep into the earth. Yet, like the meat, Snafu chose to share his looks with Eugene. Within that gaze was a darkness that threatened to consume Eugene if he dared to hold it too long. It roused forbidden desire and primal survival instinct.

 

Either way, he wanted to drop to his knees before the man. It terrified him. He could admit to himself that he harbored lust and something even more tender for his friend. With all the passionate, quick fumbles he’d shared with boys over the years in the safety of his bedroom or in the back of a closet, he could at least admit he wanted Snafu. He didn’t beat himself up for wanting the man between his own thighs, to touch from lips to hips, to have his mouth against his own and lower. That wasn’t what kept him from taking that last step.

 

It was the oddness that kept him at arm’s length. There was something otherworldly and old about Shelton that should not have existed in someone so young. It wasn’t just his eyes but the way he carried himself. He was lithe and though his limbs could be called lanky every move they made was purposeful, strangely graceful. There was an air to him of someone too big for their own skin. It seemed there was something… _more_ inside him. Maybe it had something to do with the raw power Eugene saw from him on the battlefield, maybe not.

 

Either way, Eugene politely turned down every offer of meat. Each time Snafu merely shrugged and gave him a half-smile as if to say, _One day._

 

o0o

 

“Look’it.”

 

Eugene rubbed his eyes as he plopped down beside Snafu. They had been put on watch together and he was having trouble shaking himself out of the few hours of sleep he’d managed to snag. Though he would never admit it for fear of being mocked, he felt safer knowing Snafu was sleeping close by. He only truly found rest when the man was beside him. He could usually get away with finding a spot near Snafu with some kind of half-hearted attempt at a question or conversation but he had a feeling the man knew. If he did he never called Eugene out on it and for that he was grateful.

 

But at the moment he’d much rather be pressed up against Snafu someplace far away after a hot shower, a full meal, and a soft bed.

 

“Look at what?” Eugene yawned, blinking out among the No Man’s Land stretched before them. It wasn’t quite right to call it that with no active ammunition but still it was dangerous to go further than that. He followed Snafu’s lazy finger to one of the bodies sprawled closest to them. The man was long dead but the humidity had kept his blood pooled almost perfectly. “What?”

 

“Blood,” Snafu replied simply, hand dropping into his pocket to dig out his smokes. “Looks black in the moonlight, don’t it? Light hits it just right and it goes silver.”

 

“Like mercury,” Eugene admitted.

 

“Suppose.” He lit up and the cigarette blinked red in the darkness. “Strange how something looks one way in the day, ‘nother in the night. Things ain’t the same when no one’s lookin’. It’s not different or nothin’, just looks...dangerous, I guess. Mercury’s poison, ain’t it?”

 

Eugene nodded slowly. He didn’t understand the line of thought but that was nothing new with Snafu. He enjoyed the rhythm and cadence of his voice but there something behind these particular words that he couldn’t decipher.

 

“Tell me somethin’, Sledgehammer,” Snafu drawled, smoke pouring past his lips. “You more afraid of blood when you know it’s blood, or when it’s pretendin’ to be poison?”

 

“Are you asking if I’m more afraid of what I know can hurt me versus the unknown?” Eugene puzzled, watching the man’s brows pinch up. “I’d rather know what I’m facing.”

 

“Always?” he needled with that strange, distant look.

 

“Of course.”

 

Those eyes dropped down to their mud spattered boots and he could see the cogs turning. “So’s you can decide if it’s really dangerous or not?”

 

“I suppose so, yes.” He cracked another yawn. “Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind or do you want to keep spinning riddles?”

 

Snafu chuckled but didn’t raise his eyes. He offered a smoke and Eugene gladly took it.

 

o0o0o0o

 

Eugene wasn’t sure what woke him up but his first instinct was to reach for Snafu. They shared a foxhole furthest out from the others but there were patrols to make sure nothing snuck past the line. They shouldn’t have been in any danger, they should’ve been able to follow the command of sleep without any trouble other than calming their minds long enough to find rest.

 

His heart shot up into his throat and he choked when his fingers met dirt. He was used to sleeping close to Snafu and feeling the man’s shoulder or the slope of his back when he reached out. Feeling loose dirt and grit between his nails jolted him wide awake. He slung up his rifle and blinked into the darkness to let his eyes adjust. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out but it couldn’t have been long. Everything was just as he left it. It was still the middle of the night, the half moon hadn’t moved much and the stars were still bright. He could hear distant American radio chatter and the snores of his comrades but there was something new.

 

There was a crunching, a slurping. Someone was...eating.

 

Eugene climbed out of the foxhole and kept crouched as he moved forward. Some of the mud had dried in the tepid air and he wondered if maybe a nice, fat deer had wandered into their encampment. It was a long shot but he wouldn’t turn down fresh meat. He could smell metal and he wondered if maybe a coyote or whatever passed for one in this place had snagged a hare and was chomping away at it.

 

He eased through the brush as quietly as he could and nearly yelped when the ground slope downward. He was so focused on sliding down the hill gracefully he didn’t see the predator waiting at the bottom.  Eugene’s boots slipped in the slick earth and he fumbled his rifle to lay a hand on the ground to keep from tumbling.  He barely managed to sling it up when he saw the hunched figure but something in him made him hesitate on pulling the trigger.

 

It was a man, an American marine. It was one of their own. He was hunched over a prone form, another man but in a much different uniform. It was one of the Japs and his gun had been thrown aside. Unsure what he was seeing at first, Eugene stepped around and peered through the shadows. Was he looting or…?

 

 _Blood_ . The marine’s hands were slick with it and they were buried to the wrist inside the other man’s gaping chest. The Jap’s sleeves had been ripped apart to expose his stripped arms. The sinew glistened in the moonlight and suddenly Eugene could see too much. Torn flesh and stark white bone were jutting out from shredded tissue. The hunched marine was clawing into him and tearing apart chunks to shovel into his _face_.

 

How Eugene didn’t hurl his meager dinner he didn’t know. All his homegrown sensibilities were overrun by his morbid curiosity and something else. Something deep within him that the war had awoken inside him. He wanted to know, he _needed_ to know. He edged around and raised his gun, tightening the strap around his arm to steady his aim. If someone had gone rogue, _insane_ , then it was his right to take the man out before worse happened. He couldn’t let him get to the rest of the company if he’d lost his damn mind.

 

“Show yourself!” Eugene demanded, finger itching to pull the trigger. _And where the hell is Snafu when I need him?_

 

That question was quickly answered when he cocked his rifle and the creature reared back. Humanoid, yes, but _man_? He couldn’t say. Eugene wondered if he was still in a dream. The creature was still hunched in a defensive crouch but its head craned back and a shaft of moonlight fell upon its face. _His_ face. Those eyes were wide and yellow. They glimmered with fear and familiarity. Full, plush lips gave way to splits that went up blood smeared cheeks to show off razor sharp fangs. The macabre grin was horrific but the realization was worse.

 

The creature _was_ Shelton, and the gouges in the Jap made it all too clear he’d been eating him.

 

A scream clawed its way its way out of Eugene’s throat and he stumbled back into the slope of the hill. He whipped around and struggled to climb back up but the earth was still damp. Grass and mud slid between his fingers and he slid down like a clumsy mutt. He could hear the thud of boots behind him and a throaty, clicking noise that could’ve only come from the creature. No, not a creature, his _friend_. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it, all he could do was _run_.

 

Years of education hurled words to the forefront of his mind. Cannibals. Leshy. _Wendigo_.

 

Eugene cried out when he felt the monster grab the back of his uniform and yank him off balance. He dropped to his elbows and his rifle went skidding into the night. He was picked up and flipped onto his back with one swift movement. The air was knocked out of his lungs but still he tried to scream for help. A too-long fingered hand clamped over his mouth and the creature bore down on him. His pleas were smothered and his chest felt helplessly crushed. He clenched his eyes shut and refused to look at it in a desperate hope to save himself from the same bloody end as the Jap. He thrashed but couldn’t dislodge the creature. He smacked at it with the blunt of his palms and tried to pry his hands loose, fighting as much as he could until those fangs decided to sink into his throat. The creature continued to make those strange clicking noises and he could hear it panting above him along with a wet, fleshy noise.

 

Then it was hissing. Eugene froze and quieted when he realized the creature was speaking. The letters slurred together but were slowly forming.

 

“ _Sledge. Stop._ ”

 

Hearing Snafu’s distinctive drawl strangely calmed some of the panic burning through his veins. He could feel the weight of his pistol on his hip and the knife in his boot. Eugene had a choice in front of him. He could either fight and die in a blind, idiotic storm of fear _or_ he could open his eyes and try to find his friend.

 

Was he going to be another frightened animal dying in the wild or would he swallow down his terror and live?

 

Eugene pried open his eyes and slowly turned his head to face the monster that was no longer a monster. It was simply Shelton yet not quite. The jack-o-lantern grin that had split his face was _healing_. Eugene caught the end of the flesh sealing back together to leave only a red line behind on each side. When those lips parted those bright white teeth were back, blunt and straight without a hint of fang. Though his face was speckled and streaked in blood it was more open than Eugene had ever seen it. Those eyes were still yellow but there was something within them so completely and utterly human that couldn’t be denied.

 

When Snafu’s hand lifted it was back to it’s normal size and the blood had started to dry on his unnaturally warm skin. There was heat pouring off him and Eugene found comfort in it as fingertips ran down his cheek. “Mer, it’s me. I-It’s Sledgehammer. I’m sorry I raised a gun to you, I just...Christ, Mer, were you _eating_ that man?”

 

“I…” Snafu rasped. He swallowed and his throat gave a soft click like the sound he’d made with his cheeks split open. He sounded as if he hadn’t spoken in days. “I never wanted you to know. Didn’t want you to see me like this. It’s not like it was for sport.” He cocked his head as if listening for others. “This one was comin’ for you, Gene. Snuck right past the others. Found him with a knife in our hole.” His fingers slid down to the human’s thumping pulse and he exhaled. Eugene could smell the copper on his breath. “And I was so _hungry_.”

 

“D-Don’t, Mer,” Eugene begged, pushing at his shoulders. “I won’t tell anyone. I...I won’t scream. Just don’t…”

 

“Gene,” Snafu whined, face pulling in misery. “I never hurt you none before. Why would I now?”

 

Eugene shook his head, mouth moving soundlessly as he tried to come up with something that would save his life. His heart absolutely shattered when Snafu whimpered and curled in on himself. Eugene flinched when the man moved but no pain came. Snafu wrapped his arms around Eugene’s middle and buried his face in his belly as a slew of apologetic noises poured out of him. His hands came up from the dirt and hovered over Snafu’s curls. He could see his own fingers shaking in hesitation but all that faded when he dared to lay them upon the man. Snafu pressed closer and something akin to a purr poured weakly from his throat.

 

“Don’t hate me,” Snafu was muttering into his uniform, looking so damn small and frail hunched up against Eugene. “Not you, Gene, not you, can’t bear it…”

 

Eugene took a few measured breaths and tried to calm his pounding heart. He knew he should’ve been running for the hills. He should be sick and screaming and reaching for his pistol to take down a disgusting beast. But he couldn’t go through with it. Instead he pet through Snafu’s hair and rubbed his shoulder in _comfort_. The man’s relieved sob struck him down to his core and he clung harder.

  
_  
No_ , he didn’t hate him. He could never hate him even at their most heated moments. Even when the hunger and the aches and the exhaustion got to him, he could never hate Snafu. For every drop of bad blood between them there was a good memory to replace it. They’d grown close over the months, closer than he’d ever hoped. In the shadows of the war they shared heated kisses and quick gropes, fumbling under their uniforms to try and sate their lust and _need_ for contact. They’d made no empty promises in those stolen, precious moments.

 

This was the first lie between them.

 

“You...you don’t just kill for fun, right?” he heard himself ask.

 

“No,” Snafu swore. “Don’t need much. Never did. Just been hard with all this blood…” He raised his head, chin resting on Eugene’s stomach. The emerald had bled into the gold of his eyes and the swirl of color mesmerized the human. The stare was solid, solemn. “But he was gonna’ kill you. I could taste it on his breath.”

 

Eugene dared to cup Snafu’s jaw and the man’s lashes fell low with one of those rare little purrs. He was more beast than man. It was all starting to make sense. “You were protecting me?”

 

“Always.”

 

Eugene’s heart felt swollen behind his ribs for an all new reason. “How did you become like this?”

 

Snafu took the human’s hand and dragged his mouth across his palm. “One bite at a time.”

 

Eugene’s breath hitched in an uptick of fear but there was no need. He breathed easy when Snafu’s eyes fell shut and he laid a filthy kiss across the calloused skin. It was familiar - the swell of his lips, the slick glide of his tongue, the very edge of blunt teeth. When the kiss reached his wrist it was then he knew he had nothing to fear from his friend.

 

“Not gonna’ let anyone hurt you,” Snafu swore against the thin flesh, dark lashes raising to reveal the golden glow of his eyes. “You’re mine, Sledgehammer. Ain’t nothin’ in this world going to take you from me.”

 

Eugene shivered, caught between Snafu’s warm body and the tepid mud beneath his back. He didn’t fully understand what Snafu was or what this meant but the hard-earned, bloodstained bond that had formed between them from the war was still there. The disgust he’d felt when he thought it was a monster was fading into a sort of protective affection.

 

“Does anyone else know?”

 

“No. No one alive.”

 

“Only me?”

 

Snafu nodded and laid his head back down, resting his cheek against the filthy uniform. He stared off into the darkness and Eugene carded his fingers through his hair once more.  So this was just between them. A secret’s secret. “I won’t tell.”

 

“I don’t care what you do,” Snafu grunted. “Just don’t hate me.”

 

“I don’t, Mer. I swear.”

 

Snafu sagged against him.

 

Eugene knew they’d have to go back soon but he let the moment fade out on its own as he came to terms with what his life had just become.

 

o0o0o0o

 

Eugene could smell it from across the camp. While they were all picking away at stale rations, Snafu had _something_ in his tin cup. He hunted down his friend and found him sitting away from everyone else with that damn cup steaming away with something that smelled divine.

 

Eugene dropped down to one knee beside him and leaned over his shoulder to see. It looked like any other meat, shining with flavor and a rich pink in the middle of the cuts. It seemed to have sloppily hacked up but still it was far better than anything else this place had to offer. He peered around and realized that their friends and comrades were making great efforts not to look this way. The company had always talked about the “offness” of Snafu, the strangeness, the not-quite-rightness about him. The meat was just one of many things that had put distance between him and the others.

 

But Eugene was not backing away, not anymore. Ever since that night Snafu had only grown _more_ protective if anything. He stayed within arm’s reach whenever he could and it seemed in combat he was only a handful of steps away. It should have been disconcerting but it was comforting, it made him feel almost _powerful_ to have such an ally. Though it wasn’t just that. His need for the other man had never waned. Now when they stole moments alone in the dark Snafu let himself go just a little more. That unnatural heat poured off his skin and his grip was tight, his nails just a tad too sharp.

 

Another time, Snafu would’ve asked if he needed something with a crude smirk, but now he merely chirped under his breath and tilted his head toward him in acknowledgement. There was less pretense when they were alone.

 

“Let me have some?”

 

Snafu’s lips turned down and he stared hard into his cup. “Gene…”

 

“I’ll trade you some smokes for it?” Eugene gested, tapping the man’s fork.

 

Snafu looked at him and his eyes were sharp enough to cut. Gold shimmered on the rims of his irises. But Eugene didn’t yield. “You don’t know what you’re askin’ for, Sledgehammer. Stick to the slop.”

  
‘ _One bite at a time._ ’

 

Eugene slid his hand over Snafu’s and squeezed. “I want it.”

 

“You don’t…”  


“Don’t tell me what I want, Mer,” Eugene bit out. He bumped his forehead against the man’s temple with a sigh. “Now are you going to share or what?”

 

Snafu speared a piece of meat and held it up suspiciously, eyeing the human. There were a thousand questions in those eyes and laying on his tongue. But none were voiced. He simply held it out and waited.

 

“One bite at a time, right?” Eugene murmured, taking his fork.

 

He watched Snafu’s throat bob. “Aye.”

 

Eugene popped it between his lips and bit down without hesitation. He chewed under Snafu’s slack-jawed stare and couldn’t help but moan at the burst of dark flavor. He waited for his stomach to churn and reject it but it never came.

 

Instead he reached for a second bite.

 

o0o0o0o

 

Eugene didn’t know where the hell Snafu found this room but he didn’t care. They’d had to go a half mile away from camp and climb up the side of a building for three stories before they could wedge themselves into the window. The stairs to the uppermost floor had blown out and the front door of the building was completely caved in.

 

But this was a room with a bed and privacy enough for what they wanted.

 

Snafu fucked the way he did anything. Eugene tried to muffle his noises but they’d stripped down and there were no sheets to bite. He didn’t want to chomp into his arm but it was getting harder to stay quiet. Their hips snapped together with fleshy smacks that went straight to his dripping cock. The gun oil Snafu had used was making everything so gloriously _slick_. Eugene had imagined getting fucked before in his most secret daydreams but never had he expected to open up so easily for another man before.

  
  
It had hurt - it _still_ hurt. But the pleasure was mounting and every sensation was building upon that pain to bring out a strange, new ecstasy he’d never found with his past partners. This exquisite pain was fresh and it sent fire through his veins. He clutched Snafu between his thighs and begged for more with every bow of his back, every panting kiss. Every inch of him screamed for more while his voice could not.

 

Their dog tags clacked together between their heaving chests and Eugene could feel something else stirring inside him. Over the weeks he’d felt different in small ways but now it was starting to crackle behind his ribs. Distracted by Snafu’s mouth on his throat and the way his cock rubbed against the man’s stomach he didn’t notice the ache in his jaw or fingers.

 

“Fuck, Mer,” Eugene moaned, clawing at man’s shoulders as he tried to fuck him back. “ _Harder_. You can’t break me.”

 

“That what you want, Gene?” Snafu rasped in his ear, sounding _ravenous_. “You want me to rough you up?”

 

“I’m not a delicate flower,” Eugene growled. “ _Fuck me._ ”

 

Their mouths slanted together and Eugene’s sounds were lost in the possessive swipe of his partner’s tongue. His mind was lost in the haze of their rut and he realized too late what his pawing had become. His fingertips were wet and they slipped into the grooves he’d carved out. He broke the kiss to apologize, to pull away in horror, but Snafu moaned shamelessly against his lips and arched into it.

 

“That’s it,” Snafu slurred, hand digging into the mattress so he could fuck harder. Every thrust jolted Eugene and his nails raked new paths into the man’s smooth skin. “Can feel it in you. It’s startin’. Mine. Becomin’ mine, Gene, _fuck_.”

 

Eugene whimpered and pulled back his hand. It was sleek with blood and his nails were thicker, longer, like...like...

 

“Mate,” Snafu growled into his throat.

 

Eugene fisted his hand in the man’s hair and a rough, answering noise tickled his throat. He parted his thighs further and savored how his lover pressed into him, closing every inch of space between them to worship him with his mouth and cock. Such power rested in those hips and now it was all for him.

 

The clouds outside shifted and light filtered through the grimy window to hit his hand. His fingers seemed...longer, somehow. He fanned them out, body rocking with every thrust, and he wiggled them to catch the beam. The blood truly did look black.

 

Eugene brought his hand down and swiped his tongue along his fingers. It was spice and sweetness. A fresh, yawning hunger stretched open inside his gut and he could feel his gums growing tight around his teeth.

  
  
_Mate_. That sounded about right.


End file.
